The actress talks about the evolution of Alexis and more

On CASTLE, our best-selling novelist title character, played by Nathan Fillion, may have trouble working out his love life vis-à-vis Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), but he’s a wonderful dad to daughter Alexis, portrayed by Molly Quinn.

CASTLE is now in its fifth season on ABC, Mondays at 10 PM. Texas-born Quinn is now eighteen years old, which means she started playing Alexis when she was fourteen.

With Quinn on the red carpet at the Disney WRECK-IT RALPH premiere – the movie and CASTLE have the same parent company – ASSIGNMENT X caught up with her for some insight on how Alexis is faring these days.

ASSIGNMENT X: Do you ever go back and watch the early episodes at all, and if you do, do you think, “Wow, I looked really different …”

MOLLY QUINN: Every now and then. Like the first episode, the pilot, and saying, “Did England make you their bitch?”, like that whole thing – I’m so little, so tiny [laughs]. So it’s fun, it’s really – my parents [unintentional] home video, and it’s kind of funny, because now with all these CASTLE episodes, it’s like my own home video, because I’m watching I’m growing up. It’s incredible, it’s fun to look back.

AX: As the seasons have proceeded, is Alexis developing in the way you expected her to develop?

QUINN: She’s taking a turn for the better, I’d say. And I’d like to think that I’m seeing more of me in her, which is more of a feisty side coming out, and I’m actually very excited to see Alexis toughen up a little bit.

AX: As Alexis is growing into her own person, it seems like she does something to startle and/or scare the crap out of her dad Castle in almost every episode. Are you enjoying that?

QUINN: It’s not so much that Alexis is growing into her own person, but that she’s challenging who she actually is. She thought she knew who she was, and now that all the plans and her place in life is being detoured, her core values are becoming very rocky for her, and so she’s kind of taking that out on her dad, because you take things out on the people closest to you. You know they won’t leave you – they love you. So that’s what’s going on. And it’s hard – I don’t like yelling at Nathan. We yell a little bit.

AX: At the end of third season/beginning of last season, Kate had been shot. What would you say Alexis’ feelings about that incident were?

QUINN: This is of course coming from Alexis’ point of view. The only thing she saw is her dad and Detective Beckett go down at the same time. So she doesn’t know if they’ve both been shot – she’s more worried about her dad. I mean, she respects Beckett from a distance. She does not know her. [Alexis] does respect her as a woman, but at the same time, she’s messing with my whole life [because Castle gets into the line of fire for her], so there’s of course going to be friction there.

AX: You had some scenes with a rat last season. Did you have any trepidation about that?

QUINN: Oh, no. I love rats. I used have amphibians and little rodents all my life, so it was cute actually [laughs]. I would hold it and at one point, it went down my sweater. Costumes [the people from the costume department] was freaking out, but I knew what to do, how to get it out [of the sweater].

AX: Did you enjoy playing the relationship with Alexis’ love interest Ashley?

QUINN: I think it was something new for Alexis and she was going through it for the first time. Personally, me as Molly, it gets in the way of so many other things, but I think it was really good for Alexis, she’s growing a lot in that way and it’s really going to help her with the [other aspects] of her life. And Ken Baumann, who plays Ashley, is a wonderful actor, incredibly sweet guy – we were really, really lucky to have him on the show.

AX: Now that Alexis is in college and living away from Castle’s condo, is she going to be having more separation drama, is she going to be more involved in the crime cases, because she’s still working with coroner Lanie [Tamala Jones] …?

QUINN: There is separation drama, I would have to say. I think Alexis is really going through a bit of an identity crisis, to be honest. She keeps finding reasons to go home. You think that she’d really be so happy to get out and not have to baby-sit her dad, but the truth is, that’s what she’s so used to, so it’s not easy to fall out of that type of role.

AX: And do you have a particular favorite episode or scene for Alexis that you’ve done so far?

QUINN: Alexis is fun. She’s really going to be doing a lot of different things. Personally, I love “Hedge Fund Homeboys” [from Season 1], because that scene where I’m crying by the turnstile, that was my first time ever to cry on camera, and that was very exciting for me.

AX: There was an episode this season called “Final Frontier” that riffed a little bit on Nathan Fillion’s old series FIREFLY, which he starred in as Captain Mal. In “Final Frontier,” Ed Quinn played “Captain Max.” How would you rate Ed Quinn’s Nathan Fillion impression?

QUINN: Six [laughs].

AX: Have you done any other projects that we should know about?

QUINN: A cartoon for Nickelodeon called WINX CLUB. It’s doing very, very well. I play Bloom, and she’s the leader of a group of fairies who call themselves the Winx Club, and we fight evil and keep the world balanced. I have little nieces and they love to watch it. And it’s fun, because you really get to be kind of who you are in real life doing these cartoons. I just finished WE’RE THE MILLERS, with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis. Really fun, cute movie. I’m looking forward to seeing what people say about it. That’ll probably be coming out next summer.

AX: CASTLE is now in its fifth season. Are you surprised or just gratified every time it gets renewed for a new season?

QUINN: I’m surprised and gratified. I think we’re a great show, but it’s always – you never know. There are so many great shows – like FIREFLY, for instance. Amazing show. It didn’t make it very long, so every time we get renewed, it’s such a feeling of gratitude. I’m so happy that we’re back and doing what we all love.